First Trimester: Round Two

I’m nearing the end of the first trimester of my second pregnancy and it’s been…different. Yeah. It’s been rather different from my first pregnancy with my son (now almost 2 1/2 years old). Okay “different” is the polite way to put it. You could also call it “more challenging”, “more nauseating”, “more painful” and “uglier”. Yes, I said “uglier”. As in, outside beauty (more on that later). I think the universe cut me some major slack during my first pregnancy due to my ridiculous fear of pregnancy and childbirth. I was not one of those gals that thought of pregnancy and childbirth as “beautiful”. No, sir. It scared the shit out of me. I thought, There’s a what in my body? And I’m gonna have to do what to get it out? It’s like I was under some crazy impression that humans really were delivered to doorsteps magically by storks. Lucky for me and my insane fears of vaginal childbirth, I had a c-section due to the rather large baby I had grown in there (he was 10.5 pounds at birth). So after I calmed down a bit from my initial first-time-pregnancy-shock, I was able to really enjoy much of that pregnancy. Granted, there was plenty that I didn’t enjoy – no drinking, CRAZY hormonal emotions, general stress and anxiety. But when it came to the physical side of it, the worst of it for me was a nagging pain on my side and extremely swollen feet. I never got sick or even extremely nauseated. All of the foods I already loved tasted about 100 times better than normal, so I ate and ate and ate. It wasn’t too shabby, as pregnancies go.

This second time around, my skin started breaking out before I even knew I was pregnant. Like, bad. Like, worse than teenage years. Like, I had to get prescription medicine for that shiznit. Gross, gross, gross. That certainly didn’t happen with my first pregnancy. Also, all of the typical early pregnancy symptoms – nausea, sore breasts, back aches, exhaustion – have increased in intensity a lot. A lot. Plus, you know what folks say about things progressing faster with subsequent pregnancies? True. All true. I started bloating immediately. It’s like my body said, Okay, she’s taken the pregnancy test. Time to start inflating NOW. And even when the bloating decreased, I started showing very early. My body has aches and pains that didn’t start until later in my first pregnancy. I hear that this is because my body “remembers” what to do so it’s already started the growing and stretching process. Ouch! But the one thing that I’m totally cool with happening super early is the feeling of baby movement. I felt movement at 10 weeks! That’s SUPER early! That’s still one of those things that I find to be a bit creepy, quite frankly, but it’s cool too. So I’ll take it. I’ve been nauseous most days so far for at least a couple of hours each day. But luckily, it has yet to result in actual vomit. And to top all of this weirdness off, my hair looks blah. Just blah. It’s not shiny. It’s not thick and healthy and cooperative. It’s dull, just like my face. There’s no glowing going on over here, that’s for sure. But I must also add that my more recent healthy lifestyle has obviously helped out with this pregnancy already. Being a runner now (although I’m not running right now because it’s uncomfortable – boo), I have more endurance and am more fit in general. I think between that and eating better than I used to (not perfect, of course…I mean, I’m pregnant…I’m gonna eat Taco Bell and burgers and ice cream and cake) that it has helped decrease things like constipation (gross, sorry) and heart burn.

Although I am having fun kidding about this pregnancy being “uglier”, I must say that it’s still pretty darn incredible to think about what my body is doing. No wonder I’m tired. I’m creating another amazing little person. Like, without trying. I should add it to my actor’s resume under the Special Skills & Talents section. “…can grow humans in my body with minimal effort..”